helen whately. joining me now is our political correspondent matt cole.nts that this is a u—turn, a change of policy. the gunmen had said earlier this week this was in the mix. their strategy paper did flight that this was a possibility. there is a sense that the government yesterday saying that scientifically this wouldn't necessarily help stop the spread isn't inconsistent with them now saying they want to ease pressure on emergency services. i guess it would ta ke emergency services. i guess it would take the example of a hundred or so cases at the start of the week, he would probably would not need extra ambulances and police officers, emergency services to help deal with that. if in a week or so time when this kid coming could be, we are pushing towards a thousand, doubling day dot the intensive confirmed cases. if you have got the professional football clu bs, if you have got the professional football clubs, 92 ambulances on standby, freed back into the system? i think the government would say it is not inconsistent that the questions that we have f

this morning bbc breakfast spoke to the care minister, helen whately, and asked her about the suggestionsy has changed. well, we're following the evidence and what i will say is that as the chief medical officer said and i have been advised, that the evidence tells us that stopping mass gatherings does not have a huge impact on the spread of the virus, but, for example, the decision has been taken in some countries because of the impact on public services and because when you have a mass gathering, that draws on the police and the ambulance service who need to support it. but the important thing is that all the way through, we are taking the right steps at the right time to best protect the population, drawing on the scientific advice and the guidance of experts. so, to be clear, we can expect an announcement on mass gatherings within days? i don't think i should... i have given you my response on the question of mass gatherings, but i just want to say, one of the things we have seen is that in general, you try to give people advance notice, so if we look at last week, there were some con

helen whately there.day night at 11pm for another round up of the day here at westminster, including the highlights from prime minister's questions. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. hello, we've got some real contrast in terms of the temperature north and south across the british isles in the next day or so. england and wales on wednesday, we keep the cloudy and mild feel to things, but some outbreaks of rain, rather grey conditions there. for scotland and northern ireland, clear skies, a cold start with some frost and the risk of patchy ice. a little bit of sunshine and showers on wednesday. so the dividing line between those weather types is this weather front here. it's going to be slowly sinking its way south. out of that we keep a fair amount of cloud across england and wales. rain initially for north wales and northern england will slowly sink south, but becoming fairly light and patchy as moves into the midlands and the south—west of england into the afternoon. to the north of that, a

helen whately, thank you for your time this morning. helen whately, who is the care minister.hat is the data out there? the fact remains that many, out there? the fact remains that any out there? the fact remains that many, many people, some of whom we've have reflected on this one, who have genuine concerns about loved ones in vulnerable situations. the simple question is, if we are not able to help them, who will? and that remains out there in the way. not a complete answer for that, was the? we are going to try and answer your questions. please get in touch with us and we'll try our best to get through them. we can take a look at the papers now. the lawyer and businesswoman funke abimbola is here to tell us what's caught her eye. good morning. where were you take us first? people trying to make money out of what is going on at the moment. there is always someone someone moment. there is always someone someone trying to take advantage and unfortunate we are now seeing a new fishing exercise, which is when fraudsters try to get information on the wrong way and they can use it

this morning, helen whately, the health minister, was saying that at the weekend, they tested 7000.retty disappointing, it has to be said, because earlier we had been led to believe that michael gove that it would be nearer 10,000. we are quite a way of what they are doing in germany where they plan to test around half a million per week. there is also ongoing questions about pp equipment, protective equipment, stories and some papers of more care homes and hospitals not quite getting the resources they need although helen whately stressed this morning that millions of kit is being sent out. it is essential that those at the front line across health and social have the pp that they need —— the ppe that they need when they do close contact activities, it's imperative, we have been working very hard on that. 170 million items of ppe have gone across the nhs and care provider, every registered care provider including over 25 million masks, so a huge effort. it is a logistical exercise to get the stocks to the front line when there has suddenly beena front line when there has suddenly b

we will be speaking to the uk minister helen whately in about ten minutes' time. tals, what we know isa beginning in hospitals, what we know is a large number of practices over the last few weeks have had very shortstaffed because the staff have had covid or were self—isolating. i would like to know when this will be extended to all sectors of the healthcare service because all of us are playing a part in trying to combat the disease. professor goddard, are you beginning to see a comeback in people coming back to service? no, i knowa lot comeback in people coming back to service? no, i know a lot of collea g u es service? no, i know a lot of colleagues of mine have stepped back and want to come back in, i am looking forward to that but we should see that in the next week or two. we need to get them up to speed because people will be a little bit rusty. they will need some of skilling but there are lots of processes in place in which hospitals at the moment however that so it's we shouldn't —— so it shouldn't take so long to get that upskilling. doctor nagpaul, scot